DUNCAN HUNTER EXPLAINS ‘NO’ ON BUDGET DEAL

Duncan Hunter said Thursday he voted against the debt ceiling and federal agency spending bill that ended the 16-day partial government shutdown because it does nothing to corral spending or reduce the national debt.

“It’s pretty simple — I’ve never voted for a debt-limit increase, except for one time when it was tied to no budget, no pay,” Hunter said a few hours after the House and Senate approved the measure. “I will go wherever I have to go for what I believe is the longer good of the nation.”

Hunter, R-Alpine, was the lone member of San Diego’s congressional delegation to vote against the deal. Fellow Republican Darrell Issa of Vista supported it, as did San Diego Democratic Reps. Susan Davis, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas. All of California’s House Democrats voted in favor, while seven of 15 Republicans opposed it.

Hunter said he shares the same frustration that President Barack Obama has expressed, complaining the nation lurches from crisis to crisis because of short-term budget and debt ceiling deals, the latter allowing the Treasury Department to pay the country’s bills.

“I’m for doing something bigger,” said the three-term lawmaker, whose 50th Congressional District includes heavily Republican areas of East and North County and Southwest Riverside County.

Hunter said he was not swayed by the tea party elements of the Republican Party that launched the fight three weeks ago in an attempt to unravel the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

“I had no pressure to vote the way I did,” he said. “We had people calling up saying ‘You better open up the government, you damn Republican,’ and people saying ‘You better hold strong, you damn Republican.’”

Fundamentally, Hunter said the fight made no sense to him.

“What everybody got so worked up over initially was an impossible task. Obamacare is not going away — it’s the law of the land, period. The other guy won the election, and while we can do things to chip away at it, but we should not be in a position where we’re shutting the government down.”

There is a chance that House and Senate lawmakers will work out a long-term budget deal before funding runs out again in mid-January and the debt ceiling agreement expires a few weeks later, he said, adding the onus rests with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

“If he really wants to do this, then I think we can. But whatever we do, we have to fix this thing long term.”

Hunter was succinct on what he would have done had he been cast into the role of tiebreaker.